On December 5, 1776, at a tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia, the first collegiate fraternity was born. Just seven months after the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, a group of students at the College of William and Mary gathered to form Phi Beta Kappa. These young men were also citizens of a newborn nation grappling with what it meant to be free. Politics, society and the responsibilities of liberty were at the center of every discussion.
Their values mirrored those of the Founders themselves. Democracy demands educated, principled and engaged citizens — the same qualities fraternity chapters have asked of their members for generations. It is no surprise that Phi Beta Kappa’s alumni include 17 U.S. presidents, 42 Supreme Court justices, and more than 150 Nobel laureates.
The fraternity story continued in 1825 at Union College in New York, where the Kappa Alpha Society was founded, marking the birth of the social fraternity as Americans know it today. Others followed quickly, and by the mid-1800s, Greek-letter organizations had spread to campuses across the country.
From the beginning, their purpose was never purely social. These organizations were built on brotherhood, scholarship, leadership, and service. They existed to shape character, forge lifelong bonds, and produce men equipped to lead not just on campus, but in their communities, their families and their professional lives.
As president and CEO of Alpha Sigma Phi or as chapter house presidents, we see young men grow into extraordinary ones. Our three foundational values are honor, charity, and patriotism, and few men in our fraternity’s history have embodied them more completely than Maj. Gen. George L. Mabry Jr.
On June 6, 1944, then-Captain Mabry landed on Utah Beach. His heroics in Normandy earned him a Distinguished Service Cross and a Silver Star. He fought through France, and his defining moment came at the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, where, with his battalion pinned down, he personally led the assault, clearing a path through a minefield and neutralizing multiple enemy soldiers single-handedly. That act of courage earned him the Medal of Honor. He went on to serve in Korea and Vietnam, and remained, until the end, the living definition of honor, charity and patriotism in its purest form.
Warren Buffett, perhaps the greatest investor in American history, built Berkshire Hathaway from a failing textile mill into a trillion-dollar empire guided by principle and conviction. He has since pledged more than 99 percent of his personal wealth to philanthropy, making him one of the most consequential private philanthropists in history. Warren Buffett is also a brother of Alpha Sigma Phi.
250 years of fraternities molding those who build America
On December 5, 1776, at a tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia, the first collegiate fraternity was born. Just seven months after the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, a group of students at the College of William and Mary gathered to form Phi Beta Kappa. These young men were also citizens of a newborn nation grappling with what it meant to be free. Politics, society and the responsibilities of liberty were at the center of every discussion.
Their values mirrored those of the Founders themselves. Democracy demands educated, principled and engaged citizens — the same qualities fraternity chapters have asked of their members for generations. It is no surprise that Phi Beta Kappa’s alumni include 17 U.S. presidents, 42 Supreme Court justices, and more than 150 Nobel laureates.
The fraternity story continued in 1825 at Union College in New York, where the Kappa Alpha Society was founded, marking the birth of the social fraternity as Americans know it today. Others followed quickly, and by the mid-1800s, Greek-letter organizations had spread to campuses across the country.
From the beginning, their purpose was never purely social. These organizations were built on brotherhood, scholarship, leadership, and service. They existed to shape character, forge lifelong bonds, and produce men equipped to lead not just on campus, but in their communities, their families and their professional lives.
As president and CEO of Alpha Sigma Phi or as chapter house presidents, we see young men grow into extraordinary ones. Our three foundational values are honor, charity, and patriotism, and few men in our fraternity’s history have embodied them more completely than Maj. Gen. George L. Mabry Jr.
On June 6, 1944, then-Captain Mabry landed on Utah Beach. His heroics in Normandy earned him a Distinguished Service Cross and a Silver Star. He fought through France, and his defining moment came at the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, where, with his battalion pinned down, he personally led the assault, clearing a path through a minefield and neutralizing multiple enemy soldiers single-handedly. That act of courage earned him the Medal of Honor. He went on to serve in Korea and Vietnam, and remained, until the end, the living definition of honor, charity and patriotism in its purest form.
Warren Buffett, perhaps the greatest investor in American history, built Berkshire Hathaway from a failing textile mill into a trillion-dollar empire guided by principle and conviction. He has since pledged more than 99 percent of his personal wealth to philanthropy, making him one of the most consequential private philanthropists in history. Warren Buffett is also a brother of Alpha Sigma Phi.
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250 years of fraternities molding those who build America